Day 108… Old Man Dyer

Well, as promised I made an appointment, left work early and went to the doctor. While news could have been worse, it also could have been better. Apparently the disc between my L5 vertebrae and the sacrum is compressed to near nothingness. I wish I had a picture of the x-ray because it’s pretty crazy. I was given some NSAIDs, given home physical therapy exercises and stretches that I need to do for 30 days and made an appointment for the end of September to see if any difference has been made. At that time, if nothing has improved, I’ll have MRIs done to see if I have arthritis in my spine or anything worse than a compressed disc. Other than the silver lining that I don’t yet need surgery, the only other good news is that he said he would fill out the forms for me to hopefully get a standing station at work. Let’s hope he does…

Oh, he also said that my weight lifting – as long as it doesn’t seem to hurt more when I am doing it or make things worse – doesn’t have to go away. He just recommends I don’t increase in weight but increase the reps. That sucks… can’t get stronger by not increasing the weight. But for now I’ll follow the doctor’s orders.

Because of said pain, I spent most of my day in bed or waddling around the house. I didn’t go to the gym, though I still did my hour of walking at work. It was quite painful and my friend was practically running past me as I tried to keep up. I won’t be hitting the weight room at all this week, let my elbow and back both rest. I might go and do some elliptical or something because it seems to stretch the back some and be low impact. But I’m taking it easy. After 108 days I think I deserve another little rest.